It’s usually movies and books that move me to tears. It’s usually stories about characters or people’s lives that inspire me. And those stories are usually written after they are lived out. After the victory.
But it is in my following of the American elite gymnasts who are striving to reach their ultimate goal, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Team, that I have recently found inspiration. And currently, they are exactly in the middle of their story. They are writing it right now.
And I am, quite possibly, more affected by their fight for their dream than I ever have been by anyone else. I know it’s because, over the past year, I’ve spent countless hours researching their lives, watching videos of their gymnastics, reviewing in detail their routines, their personalities, and their hopes and it’s all culminating now as they perform the routines that will determine their destinies. And I have realized something.
Their destiny is not at all just handed to them. It is by their choices and actions whether they will be on that Olympic team or not. It is by their choice to train hard, their desire to do what it takes, and their determination to make no excuses that they have victory. No, they can’t control how they are scored. They can’t control how hard it rains and how high the flood waters rise in their gym. They can not control what order they perform in and on what apparatus they start on. They can’t control their inconvenient injuries. But they can control the placement of their hands as they touch the vaulting table, the balance and strength of their bodies on beam, their momentum in the air as they flip, twist, or turn, their toe-point and lines on bars. And how do they do it? By repeating over and over their routines in the gym countless times perfecting their skills, knowing their bodies, becoming one with the equipment, with the music, and merging their mental toughness with their physical capability. And it is only through this hard work, through battling this ever-fight that they become the toughest athletes you will ever see, that they become champions.
I am inspired. Because I have dreams, too. And though they may not be to win an Olympic gold medal, they are just as important. And I’m realizing, they are just as attainable. Because I, too, can put in a work ethic and determination behind a vision. I, too, can dream. And so can you.
